So the new utility knife arrived, so I took another stab at cutting out my pieces. This time...beautiful. It is amazing the difference it makes. The first one...jagged edges, wavies, etc. Look how smooth and even the new cuts are. I am sooo happy. It is so beautiful.

It also took way less time to get the better results. This knife has an extra locking mechanism on it, so there is no possibility of retracting while I cut. Yes, I am in love with this knife.

So as predicted, the second run at this turned out way better. I then put it together with DAP contact cement. There were some gaps, but it also worked way better than hot glue, and way faster. Prettier.

So that part being done, I let it cure overnight. Well, a couple of nights. I had homework to do so I let it go a few days. The next thing is the paint job. I wanted to paint it grreen and brown, dapping so it is remeniscent of leaves. I ended up doing it a couple of times. It is really hard to see. I am unsure how to proceed from here. First I put down 3 layers of Plasti dip, to prime it for paint.

See? Unless it is in a certain light you can hardly tell it is there. I guess it might be fine. I don't know. Depends on how it ends up. Next is to attach the stretchy fabric to both sides, and create the boob parts. That won't happen until after the weekend, though. I have only 4 weeks left to finish a couple of classes, so this weekend is buckle down time. That'll give it time to cure completely, and for me to decide how I am going to finish execution.

So today I got up the courage to actually work on the project itself. I first took out a couple of old paper grocery bags and created a pattern. I used a corset that doesn't really fit me to get the basic idea of the shape of the pieces. Then I measured down my front from between my boobs to where I want the center of the front to stop. Then I drew curves for boobs from the center line to the outside, and created a curve on the bottom. Then I drafted out the side pieces. Next I measured out a back middle piece. I started with the same measurement for the longest part of the front, then I slowly cut it down until it was the right height. Then I taped all my pieces together and tried em on. I discovered I was about 4 inches short in size, so I made 2- 2 inch rectangle pieces to add to the back. Yeah, I am a big woman. I repeated the taping together, altering and taping again until I got to the size and shape I wanted. Then I pinned it to the foam.....

The next part was the hardest for me. Tracing the patterns on the foam and cutting out the pieces. I suck at tracing, and I doubly suck at cutting out. I can't cut a straight edge with a thick metal ruler. I tried. I tried hard. I broke a retractable knife, an exacto knife and a pair of scissors trying to get good cuts. Did not succeed. I ended up having to use my flimsy exacto knife, which bent and sagged as I cut, making funny curves and/or 45 ish degree angles, instead of 90. Note to self: get a better retractable knife than just a dollar tree one. That broke quickly. As the lines were so unclean, I could not use anything but hot glue to put the pieces together.

Slightly daunted, but determined to continue, I then pulled out my heat gun and warped the foam pieces. That was kind of fun. My gun works best on level 1, setting the dial to 7. I am unsure what tempurature that is, but it works.

As I mentioned earlier, my pieces did not lay flush when places edge to edge. SO I pulled out my hot glue gun and put the pieces together. That is something I apparently suck at as well. I am still getting used to useing a hot glue gun. When I was a teenage crafter, all you could find int he craft stores was low temp glue guns, so nothing held together very well. Anything like body tempurature, leaving it in the sun for a minute, would make your project come completely undone. As such I completely rejected it as a good mode of glueing. Now there are higher temp guns, with stronger glues. I have been impressed with what I found. However, I still need to refine my technique. Heavy drips, uneven edges, burned fingers are just a few of the issues I had. But, nonetheless, I got it basically together. Yeah, this will not be my final product. Once I figure out where I am going wrong throughout, I will start over again. That seems to be my M.O. anyway. I generally totally suck the first time round, get it right the second. To see how well it fit me and to see if I needed to make any design changes, I hot glued velcro straps in. That is the worst way to put together your corset. Just saying. I have some black stretchy fabric I am planning on attaching to each side, so I can just slip it on over my head. The sleeves will be made of drapy halloween fabric in green and black and grey, and sewn to a piece of cotton. I can't wear this stuff against my skin, so I figured it would probably simplify things if I didn't attach the sleeves directly to the EVA foam lower part.

Next step is to make the boobs. I have ordered some 6mm foam for those pieces. I plan to either try to use a heat tool to carve leaves so it looks like layered leaves, or scaled elaves, or cut and paste individual leaves out of foam on them. Then they will be painted green and brown. Then I will glue them to the curves at the top of the..um..corset seems the wrong word to use here. There is also a skirt. Am considering greaves as well. I also want to make bracers. I am thinking of using the 6mm foam to make a base, then I have this 2mm stuff that if heated I can make look like wrinkly leather fabric. I also found a round spider felt piece that I plan to use on the front of this thing. Put a skull in the middle of it. I will integrate spiders and leaves and stuff all through out. It will look awesome.

Now I just gotta finnish up her backstory. I am totally unsure at the moment who she is completely. I keep thinking Warrior Augra. I will have to sit down and flesh it out soon. And figure out how to do the headress. I was going to use my rams horns with it too. I am unsure now. We'll see. Depends on how it all turns out. To practice my painting techniques and to test whether or not I can glue stuff to it once it is painted I made a crown out of a piece of edging. But I am too tired to show that tonight. I think I will head to bed and save that for another post.

I am still trying to finish the video for Anglicon. I am cutting it close, and I doubt it will happen, but I am still trying.

This last week, I discovered a show called Cosplay Melee. It is fabulous! I am not much of a reality TV fan. I hate it, actually. But I needed a video to watch while I was working on homework to keep me from wandering away from my computer and it was there. There was no artificial drama. In fact, it was heartwarming to watch the contestants actually help each other out. Watching the final version of the costumes, I do not in any way believe that they finished those in the time allotted. They definitely worked more on them after the finish bell went off. The one thing I worry about is them giving an unrealistic expectation on how long it takes and how much work it takes to get them looking finished and beautiful like that. It was interesting to watch these people work. Watching thier techniques and how they organize thier workflow is way more valuable than any tutorial up on You Tube. In fact, watching the show has inspired me to try to build a costume out of EVA foam. I already have the ram horns I built a month or so ago. I have a skirt. So yesterday I headed out to the Dollar Tree to see what kind of supplies I could get there. Surprisingly, a ton. I got black loose fabric, black roses, natural colored foliage, plaster to fill in the bits of horn that needs filled in. Several fabric scarves that I can use as foundation fabrics. Rolls of tulle. Rolls of jute twine. Thinner craft foam to use as accents. Spiders and other insects to incorporate. My idea is to make a semi Augra type thing, with nature being the base for it. I also got a heat gun for cheap off Amazon. I found packages of EVA foam squares for cheap on Amazon. And Flexi-dip. I think all I have left to get is paint, and I want to finish designing it before I get that. I will have a full cosplay outfit for Kumoricon at the end of October.

I need to learn how to use my heat gun. Surprisingly, there are no instructions in the manual, just safety warnings. It has 2 levels, and a dial on the back with the numbers 1-8 with MAX just past the 8. I am guessing that, reading the box, level one is 176 to 572 degrees, and level 2 is 176 to 932 degrees. Which number corresponds to which temp is anyone's guess. Did not find anything online about it. Quite possibly, 1 is 176 and 8 or MAX is either 572 or 932. What the other numbers are specifically is wild guesswork.

I also need to figure out what the optimum tempurature is for heating EVA foam. 932 degrees feels a bit excessive. But maybe it is the correct tempurature? I dunno. What is the general temp of a heat gun that does not have the variable heat options? Online tutorials just say "heat it". That does not help here. I am probably overthinking this. I dunno. But once I get the EVA foam I will experiment. They include edge pieces as these are interlocking floor pads, which will be perfect for that. Either this will turn out spectacularly awesome or spectacularly crap. Because for some reason there is no inbetween with me.

I was not very happy with the way that octopus video turned out. It is kind of fuzzy. It is jumpy (that part is my fault, I was not patient enough to get the right frames and tried to duplicate, which I know rarely works well in stop mo). So I started looking online for Pinnacle studio tutorials. With the newer version, you can shoot stop mo directly to computer, and it has fewer requirements than Dragonframe. They are having a sale, so instead of $120 to upgrade, it is only $69.95. I have been struggling long and hard, and right now, the point of everything I am doing is to figure out the best way to use the equipment I've got. I can still use version 18 if 20 does not work with my laptop. So I decided to go for it. I may regret it, but it isn't as bad as the $300 oopsy with Dragonframe. Which according to thier tech specs SHOULD work with this laptop and does NOT. Won't even open. BTW, thier support is CRAP. I do not reccomend Dragonframe, even if it turns out to work great after I have the money to upgrade my laptop.

Pinnacle upgrade is downloading right now. I guestimate I will know if I have chosen wisely or chosen poorly in about 30 minutes. Fortunately for me, all I will be out is $70 and my frustration. No melty faces or whatever. My plan is to do a little playing around tonight, and if I can get it to recognize my camera, shoot and whatnot, I will do some actual shooting tomorrow and Periscope it. See if I can get a better video. If not, I will be disappointed.

The other thing I have been thinking over is the 72 hour Horror Film challenge by Eugene Film Society. This year it is going on Oct. 22-24. I mean, it was a frustrating blast last year. And if I can get this to shoot better, I may be able to get a better video than last year. But do I want to deal with it? I have other things I want to work on. BUT.....it would also be a great way to test the new setup, see what I can do with it. I have committed to a DnD game on the Saturday. With how much time was wasted last year with the computer shutting down and losing 3 hours of work, I may be able to do it. I have to decide.....I already committed to the game, and they are counting on me, so if I do it I would have to budget 5 hours out of that to go do that. THough that is tentative, and we have no final go ahead on the game. I suppose I can put my hat in the ring, then decide to drop out if I want.

Argh. Why can't I just be normal and not obsessed with this stop motion crap? I mean I love it. I LOVE IT. I dream about it. I literally cry when something goes wrong, I want to do it well so badly. When it goes right, it goes so right. I wish I had more of a natural aptitude for this, and it wasn't so hard for me to get a good finished product. Sigh.

Back from the con. It was fun. I am glad I went. I managed to stay out of the dealer's room mostly, so did not spend all my money. I got to meet Norman Lovett, the guy who played Holly on Red Dwarf. I got to hang out with some awesome people. I had a much needed escapre from my job search for a bit. I took a bunch of pics. Once I have had time to go through them I will post some to Flickr.

While I am still working on getting puppet hair to properly work, I have decided to go through the interwebs and see if I can find some animation contests/festivals to aim for. I found one I want to do, but I am so scared. I may not be ready for it. The winners will be presented at the LA Film Festival next year. It is a video challenge to make a movie...any kind - stop mo, live action, whatever....inspired and using Danny Elfman music for the soundtrack. He has donated some of his music from Rabbit and Rogue. Danny Elfman. I could be making an animation to DANNY ELFMAN!! It will require a good, finished polished video. I will have to write a full story, break it down, create charaters, build the puppets and sets, time it all, and make it look well finished. It is more than I have ever done before. The thought of it both petrifies me and and excites me at the same time. If I could pull it off.....wow. I have always said I want to make stop mo for a living. It won't happen by being reticent. I have 202 days to get it done. That should be enough time, right? I can spend half the day looking for jobs, half the day working on that. What if I can't? I have failed, and failed miserably. Look at the Eddie Izzard video. :P That was aweful. I don't think I can to worse than that. I think even Mr. Izzard said WTF to that one.

I think I would need to create simple characters. Simple as in not very sophisticated to build. People are great, and I still want to improve on that skill, but I think something less complicated may be better for this one. And I have to write a full story.

So...goal.....decide on the one I want to use, and write a short sketch of a story by Friday.

Then I will take the one I want to use and break it down.....make the different segments of music for the different parts of the story. Maybe I will split it up, like I did with the Douglas Adams audio, to make it easier to animate. Hmmmm

Another month has gone by. I suppose it is time to update this.I have been working on audio, but I have a limited amount of time I can work on it, and I don't yet have anything I am willing to post. I will probably work some more on it tonight.One of my favorite geek bands, Debs & Errol, were in the running for the CBC Searchlight. Errol wanted to do something with the #Votegeek hashtag, and called for fans to send him pictures of themselves with it. So I dusted off Wade and ran around town taking pictures. I also decided to take this as an excuse to actually build him a set. He needed furniture, big time. Everything I have is simply Liliputian compared to him. Here is one of the pics I took at Dutch Brothers. They are so awesome there.

Anyway...So, anyway, I took a few days a built Wade a sofa and an end table and a coffee table. I sewed a cushion and crocheted a blanket to go on the back of the sofa. I painted a background. So now that I had all these things, of course I had to play around with them. The resulting videos are not great, but the set looks awesome. Needs more detail, like pictures, a window, a book shelf, etc. Otherwise I am happy with it. Here is the mess I call a video...

So time has marched forward, and so has my progress....a little anyway. I now have my storyline for the steampunk video all lined out. I have my characters developed. I have designed the world in which they will live. I am kind of excited about it. This is going to be fun, once I get past the hard parts.

I decided I want the exterior of the houses to all be stone, with stone garden walls, etc. I envision this place to be like one the planned garden cities in England of the late 19th and early 20th century. If I am going to do this I need to find a good way to replicate a lot of walls. I do not sculpt well. I am not going to rely on someone with sculpting skills to have time available for this. So I took a trip to the Eugene Toy & Hobby to see waht they had. I found these retaining wall sections for model train sets. They will work wonderfully. I just can't afford to buy all I need. They were $11 for a set of 3. I have liquid latex. I have lots and lots of cheap plaster. I thought hey, why not make my own molds of these wall sections and then I can make all I need cheaply.

Latex mold making is not as easy as they make it look. they didn't turn out very well. I got sick from all the latex fumes. And the ones that did work didn't actually produce a working model. Even though the molds really did not shrink (I can fit the original in without stretching it), the casting is a good inch smaller than the original. I need to figure out why. I also had a hard time getting that first layer to dry properly. The side touching the original wall piece never dried properly no matter how long I left it before I did the second layer. The thing is, when you do a second layer, you can't wait too long or the layers don't adhere to each other properly. Then there were the issues with making the mother molds. Latex is thin and does not hold it's shape. This is ideal for peeling it off the original...not so for holding the casting material in the right shape. So you make a mother mold out of plaster. After the last layer has dried you cover it in plaster. Let it sit until set and voila you have a good solid base for the latex mold that will still allow for you to peel the latex off the casting without breaking it. my issue...the plaster kept crumbling. I followed the directions on how to mix it. I let it sit for hours. the ambient room temp was 70. The stupid things just kept crumbling. I finally got a few that will work, though I really need to figure out how to solve the mysterious shrinking casting issue.

Here be the picture evidence. The yellow one on the left is the first one that worked. the one at the top is the second one, though you can tell it stuck to the original and destroyed some of the detail. The one in the middle is the original, and to the right is the casting. Sad, sad, sad.

I guess I am failing in whole new ways. That is ok. I am learning, and each one gets better. I just don't have a lot of time. I wanted to get the video done in time to submit it to the Pacific Northwest Animation festival as well, but that is not going to happen. The deadline for that is Dec 31. It is already the 11th. I will be lucky if I can get the sets built by then. I also had a brilliant idea to use those poseable wooden artists manquins as the armatures for the puppets. I figured out how to get the hands to work, I just got to figure out how to build up the head and face. The advantage is there are more natural articulation points, and they are already built up to natural human proportions. I will still work on learning how to make my own, but to try to facilitate this video that is what I am trying.

Because I don't have a lot of good clamping tools for delicate cutting, I used a Dremmel with the sanding wheel to grind the hands down to where they are more normal shape. The dots are the places I will be gluing twisted florist wire. I will then wrap them all in paper sports tape and paint them. Then I need to decide how I am going to anchor them. Do I want to continue the magnet method, or do I want to drill holes and destroy my set table to try screw anchors? I am leaning toward the magnets. Less permanent damage. And I don't have to go buy sturdier foam for the base. I don't think I could get that locally. Disadvantage of living in a small town.

And that is as far as I have gotten. The molds alone took 3 days. This is a long slow process. I am impatient. I want to be animating. However, this time I want better puppets and sets. I want this one to be really cool.

I am also looking into renting office space. As long as I keep it under $300 and utilities included I may be able to do it. I would be sacrificing saving any money for deposits for my own place to live, but it would be easier for everyone else to help out if I had a place other than just a bedroom for us to work. It feels weird, and frankly no one really wants to do that, as much as they want to work on this. Sigh. It always comes down to money, doesn't it. Well, if I can get to a place where my animations look more professional maybe I can get a few commissions, maybe start at least having it pay for itself. that would make it tons easier.

Anyway, if you are reading this and have an inkling of why my molds are giving me grief, feel free to either comment or email me. I was planning on having people over to help make castings, but I have to have enough molds for more than just one person to use.

It has been such a busy week. I have been working on animating. I plan on sharinf pictures and thoughts on the process, but right now I am SO tired and need desperately to nap. I will post when I have more energy.

I will, however, take the time to share with you my new video. It is not great, but it isn't bad. I ran out of time to do proper audio dialog and sound mixing, so I went with the silent movie approach.

Also reworked my second animation ever. It is pretty bad. There was a lot more to it, but I cut it down for your sanity and mine. It was part of a series of animations I did about the Tardis taking time to have adventures without the Doctor. The sound is a little off, but I will fix it later.

Ok...so the last couple of days I have been working on my iPad frame. I got a hold of a Dremmel tool and was able to cut the slit in the middle. I learned a bit about cutting PVC. Of course I followed all the safety procedures. I wore a mask and safety glasses. I opened all the windows and turned on a fan. I wore protective clothing. That was a big deal as I hate wearing extraneous clothing while building things. I like a close fitting tank top and a pair of comfy but not too roomy shorts when I work. That way I am comfortable abd don't risk getting pieces of clothing in the way.....ie in glue, under my cutting tool, knocking over things in my set, etc. Though Dremmels work very well, the one I used overheated quickly and I had to stop every few minutes or I couldn't handle it. The Dremmel would also stop if I hit a harder spot. I realize this is probably a safety feature, but it is damned annoying. The best way to cut PVC with a Dremmel, in case you were wondering, is to make several medium speed passes at it. It is better to go from right to left, as the other way when you hit the end of what you are cutting the Dremmel goes flying off to the right. As I am pretty sure that could end badly, moving the other direction seems wiser. Also...PVC doesn't just knock out when you get close to the end. You have to cut it the whole way through before it'll move. Not like wood at ALL.

So now that I know, I probably will never work with PVC again. But it is mostly finished now.

I am finding it difficult to get the foam insulation to stay on the inside edges. I have yet to decide if that means i need to glue it in with better glue or if I need to find a better padding medium. I also need to glue down the nut that is currently holding the screw from the tripod in place. I plan to sand down the corners and paint it with black spray paint. The kind made for covering plastic furniture. So that project is almost done. Action shot:

I also think I need to figure out how to make the iPad sit higher in the frame. I was relying on the insulation to do that. Maybe it still will.

I feel a bit more accomplished now. I love working with ny hands. The Dremmel is a blast. Now I am going to have to find other projects to use it for.

So the creative bug had been biting me pretty hard lately. I really want to do some cool stuff, though I know a lot of it I just will need to learn how to do and it will be crap. I made a list of everything I want to do, and looking at it (it is pretty long) I think I am going to need to make a plan if I am ever going to get any of it done.

Warning: LONG post! Lots of bullshit! A bunch of pics! Feel free to read or skip as appropriate.

First thing, I have been working on a new stop mo. My camera has pretty much crapped out on me, so I am going to have to figure out how to do it without the camera. I have my iPad. I have figured out how to get pics from my iPad to my computer. I have found a few camera control apps for the iPad, though nothing that lets me control the focus the way I want. Also I need to anchor that sucker down somehow so it doesn't look like my characters are in an earthquake all the time.

Here is a quick pic of the set I built. Still needs some work but not too bad.

I plan to make a frame out of this PVC pipe that will hold my iPad and screw onto my tripod.

So I have designed a frame thing that is made of PVC piping and foam insulation tape. I had planned on cutting the PVC with my hacksaw and mitre box. The box is missing. I packed them together, because I usually do not use either one by themselves. One of these days I will either go get another one or find a friend who has power tools to help me cut them at a 45 degree angle and cut a slot in the top for the foam insulation and a place to rest the iPad. Then I will drill a 1/4inch hole in the bottom for mounting to the tripod platform. Project number one. :)

So last weekend I helped a friend move. As per usual she wanted to get rid of stuff, and as per usual I accommodated her and took it off her hands. The first thing was this awesome globe thing that lights up.

Yup, it lights up. It pretty much reminds me of the Ood from Doctor Who...

A face only a mother could love. :P

Now I have to figure out how to costume this bad boy. I can't sew, and I have other sewing projects I want to do. So I will need to find a place to find South Korean looking jackets and grey slacks. And of course the mask. I HAVE to take a shot at making a mask of that face. I have no mask making experience. I do have liquid latex. I have been looking online and if I do it in 3 pieces I may actually be able to pull it off. One piece for the face, another piece for the tentacles, and a final piece for the head. I am currently researching the cost of latex foam. I also need to get myself a few styrofoam heads to use as bases. I think I would make a thin latex mask for the face, a molded latex foam for the head, then attach the tentacles to a large mesh frame that attaches to the mask. that will make it easier to breath. It would also be awesome if I can find a cheap voice modulator.

On the latex mask front, I decided if I am going to do an Ood, I also need to make a Vastra mask.

This is Madame Vastra (picture property of BBC and Doctor Who). She is strong and beautiful and a warrior and everything I wish I could be. She is one of my favorite fictional characters ever. She is married to Jenny, the lady behind her in this picture. If you don't watch any other Doctor Who, it is worth watching the episodes she is in just to bask is this dazzling character. I have been waiting out the last few years of less than stellar storylines and Moffet's version of Psych! and a Doctor who doesn't really feel like the Doctor, but her alone has made this wait worth it. As masks go, this one looks like the most comfortable one to wear for long periods at a time. I would do her Victorian outfits, though. She has some gorgeous black dresses I really want. Though, my next project could conceivably be used for her character.

I also got a green leather coat. It is HUGE. It is very 80's. The shoulder pads are gone, but thiey have left thier mark in the shoulders of this coat. there is enough leather fabric in that coat to make a steampunky vest or two. A vest that would go with the brown leather coat I found last winter. It would also go with the Vastra mask. I also want to sew some aviator pants to use with steampunk.

I want this look, pants boots and all. Except I want to make them black. These pants could go with steampunk and Vastra.

I also was given several sets of vampire fangs. So....I can do regular vampire, steampunk vampire, or vampire Silurian (Vastra is a Silurian). OR Vampire Steampunk Silurian! Oh this is going to be awesome. :)

I can't sew worth a damn, so I will have to find someone to supervise.